As I have recently become a member of the National Trust, a friend is organising me to use my membership. I had been wanting to go to Stourhead and understood that it was good for autumn colours. We had to choose one of my friend’s days off – the Monday of half-term. After parking we started with a coffee,
Then went up through the stable yard to look at the house, but didn’t go in. We then wandered back to the gardens and after skirting a tree-shaded lawn followed a top path.
This gave a view down to the Palladian bridge – which one can’t walk across, or it would ruin the lawn. We continued on and then down to do a circuit of the lake.
The grotto was closed for repairs, but we did look in one of the other buildings, where there were several Greek/Roman style statues. As we couldn’t guess who they were, we asked the volunteer on duty who told us. Hadn’t heard of most of them, so no wonder I couldn’t work out who they were. There was one “hero” and one saint among them! We continued to wander on round the lake.
It was then time for lunch, so we went to the cafe and had some, before going to the church to have a look round. We were just leaving the loos and heading for the car when the heavens opened and it rained – hard! We waited for a while then gave up made a run for it – and got soaked. The rest of the day had been lovely and sunny though. We were maybe a bit early for the best of the autumn colours and half-term might not have been the wisest time to go – too many people.
Two days later, another friend asked if I would go with her to Bournemouth, as she hadn’t seen the sea this year. I said yes and we decided we would have to go on the Saturday so it was before the clocks changed.
We took the bus and got off at Boscombe Chine gardens – although the bus driver was not very helpful about that. We walked down through the gardens.
They were attractive and it was a lovely walk down.
The path led down to the sea by Boscombe pier – well, I knew that – I had looked it up on maps before we started!
We headed towards Bournemouth and stopped at an “American Diner”, a short way along, for a coffee. The walk was then along the promenade.
We both think that one used to have to go down steps to the beach, but the sand is now at promenade hight. Natural or imported sand?
The sun came out and it was warm so we could take our coats off – so my friend was wandering along in a T-shirt – at the end of October! We went on as far as Bournemouth pier.
It was then time for lunch, so we wandered up through the gardens and into the town. We eventually found an acceptable cafe – but discovered afterwards that if we had walked another 10 yards or so we would have had a lot more choice! There were a lot of people dressed in the costumes of people from Alice in Wonderland who were stopping at some points and staring at their phones. Apparently, they were following a trail and there were quiz questions at some places. (Why did my friend disappear when I asked a group what it was all about? Embarrassed?!!)
After lunch we had a short walk through the town and then back down to the gardens to see if we could find an ice-cream but there was a shortish shower and apparently one can’t eat ice-cream in the rain – says my friend! We found a cafe and had a hot chocolate instead. Then we had to find the bus stop for the bus back – it has moved since the last time we were in Bournemouth, before the pandemic. When we got on the bus my friend, who always makes me go upstairs on the bus for a better view, couldn’t make it upstairs – too tired!!
So? Two good days out with some lovely sunny weather and not much rain.